A2012 review of state voter lists found that

approximately 24 million voter registrations i

the United States are inaccurate or no longer

valid.1 In developing processes to identify and remove

such ineligible voters, election officials seek to protect

the rights of those who are eligible while minimizing

opportunities for electoral fraud and reducing the

administrative costs associated with generating electio

materials for individuals who cannot vote. This Short

Subject provides an overview of the procedures

election officials use to manage databases of registered

voters and remove invalid registrations.

WHAT ARE VOTER REGISTRATION

LISTS?Most U.S. elective offices are tied to geographically-

defined constituencies. Voters must reside in a given

geographic region in order to vote in a particular

election. When individuals register to vote, informatio

about their identity, residence, and eligibility are

entered into databases administered by counties and

states. Elections officials are responsible for

maintaining the accuracy of these lists. This is not an

easy task as maintenance programs must make an

effort to purge ineligible voters while avoiding the

accidental removal of eligible voters.

CURRENT LAW

The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Help

America Vote Act (HAVA) outline federal requirement

regarding the maintenance of voter lists and the

procedures for removing individuals. State programs

must be nondiscriminatory and maintenance cannot be

conducted within 90 days prior to a federal election. In

California, an individual voter may be purged because

of death, mental incompetency, criminal conviction, or

by request from the voter. Registration can also be

cancelled when it appears that an individual has move

to a different county.

Figure 1 , adapted from a Brennan Center report on

purging, illustrates the process. While the events that

n

n

n

s

d

activate the address confirmation process vary, the

most common triggers are undeliverable election-

related mail and information in the USPS's National

Change ofAddress database.

LIST MAINTENANCE PROCEDURESFigure 2, reproduced from an Orange County Registrar

ofVoters’ report on voter list maintenance, provides an

example of the various reasons voter registrations are

cancelled. The easiest, but least used, method of

removal occurs when voters notify election officials

Figure 1 : Example Removal Process2

SHORT SUBJECTS

June 2013 S­13­013

Maintenance ofVoter

Registration Lists: A Brief

Introduction

California Research Bureau ♦ California State Library ♦ www.library.ca.gov/crb ♦ (916) 653-7843

ELECTION POLICY SERIES

that they have moved or otherwise wish to cancel their

registration with a particular county. More often,

officials rely on returned mail from the post office or

notifications from the DMV to identify individuals

who may have moved and are no longer eligible.

Data matching is a tool that allows officials to link

records from their voter list to other databases that may

include information concerning eligibility. These

external sources include state death or felony records,

the USPS National Change ofAddress database and

Address Change Service, and the Social Security

Death Index. Some states share voter lists with each

other to identify individuals who are registered in

multiple states. One of the most talked-about data

sources is the Systematic Alien Verification for

Entitlements (SAVE) database administered by the

Department ofHomeland Security, which some states

hope to use to determine the citizenship status of

individuals on their registration rolls.

CONTROVERSIES ASSOCIATED

WITH PURGINGSystematic list purges and other maintenance

procedures help officials ensure that voter rolls are

accurate and current. If it is true that 24 million

registration records are inaccurate or no longer valid,

current efforts might be insufficient. However, more

aggressive attempts to clean voter lists may increase

the likelihood that eligible individuals are also

removed.

Voting rights activists argue that purges are often based

on error-ridden databases and that matching procedures

can incorrectly link multiple records. In cases where

individuals are not given notice of cancellation or an

opportunity to challenge their removal from voter lists,

nontrivial portions of the electorate could be

disenfranchised. An extreme example of this occurred

during Florida’s 2000 purge, where as many as 12,000

eligible voters were removed from registration lists.2

A recent controversy regarding voter list maintenance

concerns attempts by states to remove individuals who

are not U.S. citizens. Following a series of lawsuits

among state governments, the Department of

Homeland Security, and the Justice Department,

several states were given permission to use

immigration data from the SAVE system to identify

ineligible individuals. Embedded in this debate is the

question ofwhether the federal law prohibiting

removal in the 90 days before an election applies in the

case of noncitizens. This issue is particularly

contentious as attempts to identify noncitizens

disproportionately affect the Latino community and

purges undertaken within 90 days before an election

may increase the likelihood that eligible voters are

removed incorrectly from voter lists.4

CITATIONS

1 . Pew Center on the States. (2012). Inaccurate, Costly, and

Inefficient: Evidence that America’s Voter Registration System

Needs an Upgrade.

http://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2012/Pew

_Upgrading_Voter_Registration.pdf

2. Perez, Myrna. (2008). Voter Purges. The Brennan Center for

Justice.

http://www.brennancenter.org/publication/voter-purges

3. Orange County Registrar ofVoters. (2012). Voter Registration

Accuracy and Voter List Maintenance.

http://www.ocvote.com/election-

library/docs/2012%20Voter%20List%20Maintenance.pdf

4. National Association ofLatino Elected and Appointed Officials.

(2012). Latino Voters at Risk: The Impact ofRestrictive Voting

and Registration Measures on the Nation’s Fast Growing

Electorate.

http://www.naleo.org/downloads/LatinoVotersatRisk.pdf

Figure 2: Most 2012 Removals in Orange County Due to

Death or Change in Residence3

California Research Bureau ♦ California State Library ♦ www.library.ca.gov/crb ♦ (916) 653-7843

The California Research Bureau is a divisionwithin the California State Library,providing in­depth research and nonpartisanpublic policy analysis to members of theState Legislature and the Governor. Onlineat www.library.ca.gov/crb.The author of this Short Subject, MatthewK. Buttice, Ph.D., can be reached atmatthew.buttice@library.ca.gov.